6,599 research outputs found

    Liquid drops on a surface: using density functional theory to calculate the binding potential and drop profiles and comparing with results from mesoscopic modelling

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    The contribution to the free energy for a film of liquid of thickness hh on a solid surface, due to the interactions between the solid-liquid and liquid-gas interfaces is given by the binding potential, g(h)g(h). The precise form of g(h)g(h) determines whether or not the liquid wets the surface. Note that differentiating g(h)g(h) gives the Derjaguin or disjoining pressure. We develop a microscopic density functional theory (DFT) based method for calculating g(h)g(h), allowing us to relate the form of g(h)g(h) to the nature of the molecular interactions in the system. We present results based on using a simple lattice gas model, to demonstrate the procedure. In order to describe the static and dynamic behaviour of non-uniform liquid films and drops on surfaces, a mesoscopic free energy based on g(h)g(h) is often used. We calculate such equilibrium film height profiles and also directly calculate using DFT the corresponding density profiles for liquid drops on surfaces. Comparing quantities such as the contact angle and also the shape of the drops, we find good agreement between the two methods. We also study in detail the effect on g(h)g(h) of truncating the range of the dispersion forces, both those between the fluid molecules and those between the fluid and wall. We find that truncating can have a significant effect on g(h)g(h) and the associated wetting behaviour of the fluid.Comment: 16 pages, 13 fig

    An introduction to inhomogeneous liquids, density functional theory, and the wetting transition

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    Classical density functional theory (DFT) is a statistical mechanical theory for calculating the density profiles of the molecules in a liquid. It is widely used, for example, to study the density distribution of the molecules near a confining wall, the interfacial tension, wetting behavior, and many other properties of nonuniform liquids. DFT can, however, be somewhat daunting to students entering the field because of the many connections to other areas of liquid-state science that are required and used to develop the theories. Here, we give an introduction to some of the key ideas, based on a lattice-gas (Ising) model fluid. This approach builds on knowledge covered in most undergraduate statistical mechanics and thermodynamics courses, so students can quickly get to the stage of calculating density profiles, etc., for themselves. We derive a simple DFT for the lattice gas and present some typical results that can readily be calculated using the theory

    Influence of the fluid structure on the binding potential: comparing liquid drop profiles from density functional theory with results from mesoscopic theory

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    For a film of liquid on a solid surface, the binding potential g(h)g(h) gives the free energy as a function of the film thickness hh and also the closely related structural disjoining pressure Π=−∂g/∂h\Pi = - \partial g / \partial h. The wetting behaviour of the liquid is encoded in the binding potential and the equilibrium film thickness corresponds to the value at the minimum of g(h)g(h). Here, the method we developed in [J. Chem. Phys. 142, 074702 (2015)], and applied with a simple discrete lattice-gas model, is used with continuum density functional theory (DFT) to calculate the binding potential for a Lennard-Jones fluid and other simple liquids. The DFT used is based on fundamental measure theory and so incorporates the influence of the layered packing of molecules at the surface and the corresponding oscillatory density profile. The binding potential is frequently input in mesoscale models from which liquid drop shapes and even dynamics can be calculated. Here we show that the equilibrium droplet profiles calculated using the mesoscale theory are in good agreement with the profiles calculated directly from the microscopic DFT. For liquids composed of particles where the range of the attraction is much less than the diameter of the particles, we find that at low temperatures g(h)g(h) decays in an oscillatory fashion with increasing hh, leading to highly structured terraced liquid droplets

    Liquid drops on a surface: using density functional theory to calculate the binding potential and drop profiles and comparing with results from mesoscopic modelling

    Get PDF
    The contribution to the free energy for a film of liquid of thickness h on a solid surface due to the interactions between the solid-liquid and liquid-gas interfaces is given by the binding potential, g(h). The precise form of g(h) determines whether or not the liquid wets the surface. Note that differentiating g(h) gives the Derjaguin or disjoining pressure. We develop a microscopic density functional theory (DFT) based method for calculating g(h), allowing us to relate the form of g(h) to the nature of the molecular interactions in the system. We present results based on using a simple lattice gas model, to demonstrate the procedure. In order to describe the static and dynamic behaviour of non-uniform liquid films and drops on surfaces, a mesoscopic free energy based on g(h) is often used. We calculate such equilibrium film height profiles and also directly calculate using DFT the corresponding density profiles for liquid drops on surfaces. Comparing quantities such as the contact angle and also the shape of the drops, we find good agreement between the two methods. We also study in detail the effect on g(h) of truncating the range of the dispersion forces, both those between the fluid molecules and those between the fluid and wall. We find that truncating can have a significant effect on g(h) and the associated wetting behaviour of the fluid

    New Evidence for Efficient Collisionless Heating of Electrons at the Reverse Shock of a Young Supernova Remnant

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    Although collisionless shocks are ubiquitous in astrophysics, certain key aspects of them are not well understood. In particular, the process known as collisionless electron heating, whereby electrons are rapidly energized at the shock front, is one of the main open issues in shock physics. Here we present the first clear evidence for efficient collisionless electron heating at the reverse shock of Tycho's supernova remnant (SNR), revealed by Fe-K diagnostics using high-quality X-ray data obtained by the Suzaku satellite. We detect K-beta (3p->1s) fluorescence emission from low-ionization Fe ejecta excited by energetic thermal electrons at the reverse shock front, which peaks at a smaller radius than Fe K-alpha (2p->1s) emission dominated by a relatively highly-ionized component. Comparison with our hydrodynamical simulations implies instantaneous electron heating to a temperature 1000 times higher than expected from Coulomb collisions alone. The unique environment of the reverse shock, which is propagating with a high Mach number into rarefied ejecta with a low magnetic field strength, puts strong constraints on the physical mechanism responsible for this heating, and favors a cross-shock potential created by charge deflection at the shock front. Our sensitive observation also reveals that the reverse shock radius of this SNR is about 10% smaller than the previous measurement using the Fe K-alpha morphology from the Chandra observations. Since strong Fe K-beta fluorescence is expected only from low-ionization plasma where Fe ions still have many 3p electrons, this feature is key to diagnosing the plasma state and distribution of the immediate postshock ejecta in a young SNR.Comment: 7 pages, 9 figures, resubmitted to ApJ with minor changes following the referee repor

    The Relationship Between Molecular Gas, HI, and Star Formation in the Low-Mass, Low-Metallicity Magellanic Clouds

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    The Magellanic Clouds provide the only laboratory to study the effect of metallicity and galaxy mass on molecular gas and star formation at high (~20 pc) resolution. We use the dust emission from HERITAGE Herschel data to map the molecular gas in the Magellanic Clouds, avoiding the known biases of CO emission as a tracer of H2_{2}. Using our dust-based molecular gas estimates, we find molecular gas depletion times of ~0.4 Gyr in the LMC and ~0.6 SMC at 1 kpc scales. These depletion times fall within the range found for normal disk galaxies, but are shorter than the average value, which could be due to recent bursts in star formation. We find no evidence for a strong intrinsic dependence of the molecular gas depletion time on metallicity. We study the relationship between gas and star formation rate across a range in size scales from 20 pc to ~1 kpc, including how the scatter in molecular gas depletion time changes with size scale, and discuss the physical mechanisms driving the relationships. We compare the metallicity-dependent star formation models of Ostriker, McKee, and Leroy (2010) and Krumholz (2013) to our observations and find that they both predict the trend in the data, suggesting that the inclusion of a diffuse neutral medium is important at lower metallicity.Comment: 24 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ. FITS files of the dust-based estimates of the H2 column densities for the LMC and SMC (shown in Figures 2 and 3) will be available online through Ap

    OGFOD1 catalyzes prolyl hydroxylation of RPS23 and is involved in translation control and stress granule formation

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    2-Oxoglutarate (2OG) and Fe(II)-dependent oxygenase domain-containing protein 1 (OGFOD1) is predicted to be a conserved 2OG oxygenase, the catalytic domain of which is related to hypoxia-inducible factor prolyl hydroxylases. OGFOD1 homologs in yeast are implicated in diverse cellular functions ranging from oxygen-dependent regulation of sterol response genes (Ofd1, Schizosaccharomyces pombe) to translation termination/mRNA polyadenylation (Tpa1p, Saccharomyces cerevisiae). However, neither the biochemical activity of OGFOD1 nor the identity of its substrate has been defined. Here we show that OGFOD1 is a prolyl hydroxylase that catalyzes the posttranslational hydroxylation of a highly conserved residue (Pro-62) in the small ribosomal protein S23 (RPS23). Unusually OGFOD1 retained a high affinity for, and forms a stable complex with, the hydroxylated RPS23 substrate. Knockdown or inactivation of OGFOD1 caused a cell type-dependent induction of stress granules, translational arrest, and growth impairment in a manner complemented by wild-type but not inactive OGFOD1. The work identifies a human prolyl hydroxylase with a role in translational regulation

    Mulat-estetiek: ’n Analise van Adam Small se dramas

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    Opsomming In hierdie artikel word die dramakonvensies van Adam Small ondersoek met besondere aandag aan perspektiewe op die mulat as ’n sosiale gegewe. Hierdie element bied ’n gepaste invalshoek omdat dit enersyds ‘n verskynsel is wat Small in sy dramas en ander skryfwerk aansny en daar andersyds ’n uitgebreide literatuur bestaan waarin oor die dramatiese, lewensbeskoulike en literêr-teoretiese inkleding daarvan besin word. Die werk van onder andere Langston Hughes en Derek Walcott word ondersoek om ’n leesstrategie te ontwikkel waarmee die Small-teks geanaliseer kan word.Web of Scienc
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